Comments on: Negotiating Technology

By: Technology overload • kristanhoffman.com

Technology overload • kristanhoffman.com — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:03:45 +0000

[...] – Alex Beauchamp, Girl at Play [...]

By: Michele

Michele — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:00:57 +0000

I’m so glad my friend directed me to this post! She knows I recently shared with the world that I’m living on an Amish farm (not with the Amish in their home, just in an Amish-built house on an Amish farm in an Amish community). There’s no electricity in the house, but gradually the solar/wind power is coming along. I have thought about climbing the windmill to try to get a stronger signal with my USB modem but decided against it.

I’m not majorly tech savvy, but I am into social media and I love reading and keeping up with blogs. There is pressure (I think we put on ourselves sometimes) to comment and keep updated and to friend everyone and their brother. So, when I shut the ole laptop off–or when it dies!–I can step out onto the porch, take in the surrounding pastures where cows are lazily grazing, and breathe a sigh of relief as I listen to the calm–and perhaps watch a horse-drawn buggy pass by.

Yes, the Amish live a different lifestyle than most do…

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:29:06 +0000

Rejecting simplicity is to our detriment and lowers our quality of life. Being too “plugged in”, for me, can be stressful. Yes, I have some of my own websites. Several in fact. But I’ve learned from those that it is easy to let a technology or a tech concept swallow you up until the original glamor wanes. I had a blog for every hobby which got too stressful. Now I have just one blog on the URL that bears my name and I decided who cares – I’ll do what I want with it. Who says I need to have a niche anyway? I am ME when I work with clay, write, cook, travel and exercise so F-it. I spend less time working on my websites now and more time exploring the beautiful city where I live. Plug yourself in too far and the outside world doesn’t exist anymore. And I am not convinced that technology and gadgets galore does anything to save you time. I just recently started doing my bookkeeping the old fashioned way and it’s quicker!

By: Johanka

Johanka — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:20:32 +0000

I think the issue is not about the technology itself any more (as if there ever was a technology hovering in a vacuum-like state, out of touch with the social realities of its users!). What the whole think boils down to more and more is the simple difference between extrovert and introvert preferences. And since extroversion is in the majority and with it goes the desire to be connected, to be seen all the time, it doesn’t take much putting two and two together as to who is going to get pissed off and left behind. Us, introverts, of course.

By: We Need Twefficieny | Ryan C. Miller.com - Social Media, Design, Tech, Commentary & all things web. Maybe even a little bit of ME.

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:08:25 +0000

[...] any case, Alex had a great post about Negotiating Technology and talks about how with all these social networking tools to navigate, have we shifted from using [...]

By: Shan

Shan — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:58:52 +0000

You seem to be describing a need for balance between technology and other areas of your life. I think this is very wise. I’m Blackberry free but I blog. I don’t twitter or Facebook because I know they will suck up my time. I read between 5-10 blogs regularly and occassionly read a few extra. I jog, take walks in the woods, spend time in my garden, by the water, paint, spend time with my kids,etc.

By: Kristan

Kristan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:05:52 +0000

I feel the same way you do – I get irritated by the redundancy, I worry about offending someone by not following them on Twitter (or whatever), and I long for the freedom to use or ignore as I please.

I, however, do not currently possess the online/offline balance I’d prefer. That’s probably something I need to think about and then fix…

Thanks for this eloquent post.

By: Callahan McDonough

Callahan McDonough — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:05:55 +0000

My friend Judi, keeps nudging the 59yr.old,boomer-gal to update my technology skills/involvement. After much nudging, I finally got on facebook and love it! Apparently women over 5oyr. largest growing users of facebook. I have found friends from elementary school, high school and the height of my art/mover shaker days onward. Very sweet and fun. But then, every time I turn around its another site to link to & post on. I can lose hours without even realizing it! In art you can make art or be on the computer
Callahan McDonough
Atlanta

By: Luisa

Luisa — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:55:10 +0000

The problem is not technology but information. There is too much silly information out there, and if you decide to use twitter, facebook and a hundred apps for the iPhone you’re allowing yourself be drowned in this sea of mindless knowledge that just generates anxiety and overwhelm.

Could we live without phones? Probably not,
can we live without the iPhone, sure, could we live without social networks.. you bet. It’s just a very bizarre world where we all want to be updated and we want to update everyone on our lives. It’s insane.